GM India halts sales of diesel Sail U-VA, saloon & Tavera

June 11: General Motors India has reportedly asked its dealers to stop selling the diesel variants of the Sail saloon and Sail hatchback, for suspected problems with the 1.3-litre diesel engines these cars have under the hub.

The company has also asked dealers to stop sales of the BS 3 variant of the Tavera. It is not clear at present if this could lead to a product recall of all diesel models of the Sail saloon and hatch. Both cars are not even a year old in the market. However, one dealer says deliveries of the vehicle are delayed from 25 days to over two months. As per the norms of the voluntary recall policy, OEMs need to inform the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, the government and customers about any fault in its products, which may require a recall. GM India’s vice president P Balendran has been quoted as saying: We will come back to you with an update after thorough investigation in the coming days.

The Sail U-VA was launched last November and its saloon version in February. Both have sold about 6,000 units each. The Tavera sells about 1,200 units a month and its engines were sourced from ICML which makes the Rhino SUV.